Swedish gambling operator Cherry AB was the company to register the biggest increase in online gambling revenue during the first quarter of 2017, a report by Munich-based industry research firm MECN showed.
Cherry, which operates both land-based and online gambling services, saw its iGaming revenue jump 281% during the reviewed three months to SEK453 million. Thus, the major company topped the list of the online gambling businesses to have seen the greatest growth during the quarter ended March 31, 2017.
Cherry
Here it is important to note that above-mentioned list was presented in MECN’s Online Gambling Quarterly report. As explained in the study, Cherry’s acquisition of the ComeOn online gambling business was what boosted its quarterly revenue. The Swedish operator announced last summer that it would buy a 49% stake in the Malta-licensed casino and sports betting company for the total amount of €80 million. Late in 2016, Cherry purchased the remaining 51% in ComeOn for a total consideration of €209 million.
The Malta-based operator was integrated into its new owner’s operations and its financial performance was included into Cherry’s overall reports as from the fourth quarter of 2016. Now being the sole owner of ComeOn, Cherry said it expects its full-year revenue for 2017 to be boosted to around SEK2.6-2.7 billion.
NYX Gaming
The Canadian supplier of online gambling services saw its revenue increase 200% during the first quarter of 2017 as compared to the same period of 2016. The company reported revenue of nearly C$59 million.
A major acquisition deal was behind NYX Gaming’s substantial growth. Last spring, the company bought online sports betting provider OpenBet for £270 million. The transaction was one of the largest merger and acquisition deals to have been completed within the iGaming industry in 2016.
NYX Gaming, which has been supplying some of the world’s largest operators with its products, now including OpenBet’s sportsbook offering, also attributed part of its quarterly revenue growth to launches across 11 new iGaming websites.
Gaming Innovation Group
GIG reported revenue of €23.1 million during the first quarter of 2017, up 193% year-on-year. The Malta-headquartered company, targeting players from the Nordic region and other parts of the world boosted its revenue through important acquisitions and through the launch of three new gaming brands, those being Thrills, Kaboo, and SuperLenny. In addition, GIG pointed out that it had seen an all-time high in player deposits during the reviewed quarter.
The iGaming company has been particularly active on the affiliate acquisition field over the past several months, spending millions of euros on key online gambling affiliate websites and affiliate networks. In July, the company bought the Scandinavia-focused Stk Marketing Ltd. affiliate marketing business for nearly €26 million. The deal thus became one in the largest to have taken place in the field.
Catena Media
A company particularly focused on online gaming and sports betting affiliate marketing, Catena Media saw a 104% increase in its first-quarter revenue. The company could mainly attribute this substantial growth to the multiple acquisition deals it completed in 2016.
Catena Media’s purchase of Serbian iGaming affiliate portal AskGamblers was probably the one to gain the greatest media attention. In the first place, the purchase price of €15 million was one of the reasons why the transaction made the headlines last spring.
Catena Media reported revenue of more than €15 million for the first three months of 2017.
Evolution Gaming
The live casino supplier’s quarterly revenue increased 60% to nearly €40 million during the three months ended March 31, 2017. Evolution Gaming attributed the considerable growth to the high demand for its products. An increase of this scale indicates that the live casino segment may really be one of the fastest growing industry verticals and that demand for products of this type could only grow in future.
